Fat Freddy¹s Drop

Dr. Boondigga & the Big BW

K7/The Drop

013

2009

***1/2

This Maori/Samoan/New Zealander band claims influences as diverse as highlife, Berlin techno, and bhangra, but what their music sounds like most consistently is a strangely modern and soulful version of jazzy reggae. Lead singer Dallas Tamaira (a.k.a. Joe Dukie) has an airy, soully voice that sometimes comes across like a more nimble version of Roland Gift¹s falsetto, while the band can shift with equal agility between house, dancehall, funk and one-drop grooves, sometimes within a single track. ³The Nod,² for example, starts out in a slowly chugging one-drop reggae mode before a lovely trombone solo heralds a segue into a New Orleans second-line funeral jazz interlude; "Big BW," on the other hand, juxtaposes a dark and bumping club groove with light soul-jazz vocals. "Pull the Catch" is straight-up funky dancehall, while "Shiverman" slowly builds a strong house beat beneath a chestier and more robust vocal ­ it¹s a great sound, but at over ten minutes the song is too long by half. It¹s hard to understand why the band chose to end the album with the relatively enervated and pedestrian reggae-soul of "Breakthrough," but overall this album is a hoot and a triumph.